14. Royal Path is Hidden

Many things are "hidden" in our Faith, especially from those who are blinded spiritually.  Christ even prayed thanking the Father that certain things are hidden from the wise and revealed unto babes.  Our sacraments are called "Mysteries" because there is a spiritual reality in them.  The spiritual reality is hidden from those who are spiritually blinded, and they can only see the sacraments as ritual.  

It is the same with the royal path.  There is a spiritual reality to it that is hidden more often than not.  Those unable to see the spiritual reality will usually try to define the royal path as some place or compromise between the extremes of super-correct ["true" Orthodoxy] and world Orthodoxy.

But super-correctness and renovationism, Fr. Seraphim has taught us, are just flip sides of the same disease.

Fr. Seraphim taught that the world orthodoxy [renovastionism] and the

super-correct [true orthodoxy] are just flip sides of the same coin:

opposite manifestations of the same disease.  The Royal Path is not a

"mixture" of these extremes, but a path of it's own that is above them

both.  The world orthodox is a fleshy path and the "true" is an

intellectual path, both are worldly.

The Royal Path is other-worldly.  Fr. Seraphim found it.

Saints

Saints

KNOWN BY THEIR FRUITS

The true faith is Christianity.

The true Christianity is Orthodoxy.

And the best expression of Orthodoxy is the royal path.

To show that the true faith is Christianity , we point to the saints. These are the fruits of Christianity. Christ rose Himself up from the dead; nobody else has ever brought themselves back to life. Pagan religions can produce truly righteous men, for God created all men in His image. But even the height of human goodness is not meant to be a substitute for the sanctification/deification found in the Christian saints. The difference can be seen in their miracles. Christian saints, because of Christ, have power over death and over nature [animals, weather, time]. The pagan "miracles" are confined to the psychic realm.

To show that the true Christianity is Orthodoxy, again we point to the saints. Heterodox Christianity can produce exceedingly compassionate, loving, peaceful, devoted and self-sacrificing humans. But so can pagan religions produce such fruit. Sanctity is not simply righteousness which is earthly and which is good, sanctity has an otherworldliness which is not of this world and cannot be judged by earthly standards. Compare Mother Theresa with St. Seraphim of Sarov...

To show that the best expression of Orthodoxy is the royal path, again we point to the saints. While the saints are accessible to all Orthodox, it is the royal path that produces them. The royal path is not readily discerned, but it does exist. Fr. Seraphim Rose found it. He lived it and he wrote about it. He told us who was on it and who was not, so that we would know who to trust as our guides.

FRIENDS OF GOD

We meet the friends of God by reading lives of saints. Lives of saints are the "milk" and the "meat" of an Orthodox life. One of the holy people of Fr. Seraphim's time was Archbishop John Maximovitch, who was recognized as a miracle-working saint even during his lifetime by many. Archbishop John read lives of saints throughout his whole life. We never outgrow the need to read lives of saints. 

We start by learning about their many different lives. God is not a respecter of persons, so we find saints from all walks and stations of life. Then next we start to love them. It is only natural to love somebody who loves who or what we love. We begin to love the saints because we see how they love God. Next we start to talk to them. Christ told us to love one another, He called us His friends. It is natural for friends to talk to one another. The idea here is not the Protestant idea that we need a go-between to pray to God, or that we "worship" the saints. The idea is more that we have joined, or desire to join, the "cloud of witnesses." We've been invited to the "banquet," and we do not ignore the other guests.

The saints are like our big brothers who have walked the path ahead of us. They are eager to help us. God provides us with heavenly helpers, just like He provides us with earthly helpers [parents, teachers]. They inspire us, they encourage us, and they pray for us - just like our friends in Christ who are still on earth.

Changing Terminology

"True" and "Traditional"

Back in the old days - like 200 A.D. - there was only one Christian Church.  Everyone who was called "Christian" belonged to the same Church. 

But later, when many sects arose, the word "Christian" no longer had the same meaning and did not necessarily refer to the original Church.  

So, to differentiate, the term "Orthodox" Christian was introduced to differentiate the sects from original Christians.

Back in the old days -1970's - Archbishop Averky [Taushev] noted that the left-wing renovationists who were renovating Orthodoxy were still calling themselves "Orthodox." 

He was distressed, saying we have to come up with a new name for ourselves.  Because not everything that calls itself Orthodox is truly Orthodox anymore.

To differentiate between renovated Orthodoxy and unchanged Orthodoxy, Archbishop Averky started referring to us as "True" Orthodox. 

That was in the 1960's and 1970's.

Since then, and today [2008], the term "True" has been picked up by the right-wing factions.  They are calling themselves "True Orthodox."  The term "True Orthodox" today no longer has the same meaning as it did when it was first used.

Today it refers to the whole group of fragmented right-wing jurisdictions, both Russian and Greek. They also refer to themselves as "Traditional Orthodox."  So, if you see the terms "True" church or "Traditional" church, be alert to this is clue that this church might be in the right wing extreme.

When reading materials from earlier days and present days, keep this in mind so not to get confused.